Hey friends :)
First two weeks down and all is well. I'm shocking on top of all my classes (being as it really is only 2 weeks in I haven't been given too much...) and doing well with work, dance also starts this week and I'm super excited.
A few people have reached out to me in the last two years and asked questions and I absolutely love when you guys email me! But I also have noticed a thread of commonly asked questions - so feel free to email me about anything, but here are some of the common questions I get asked.
1. Whats housing like on campus?
If you have any other questions, or want to say hi just shoot me an email: ksaylor@lclark.edu
Cheers!
Kate
First two weeks down and all is well. I'm shocking on top of all my classes (being as it really is only 2 weeks in I haven't been given too much...) and doing well with work, dance also starts this week and I'm super excited.
A few people have reached out to me in the last two years and asked questions and I absolutely love when you guys email me! But I also have noticed a thread of commonly asked questions - so feel free to email me about anything, but here are some of the common questions I get asked.
1. Whats housing like on campus?
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| My room last year in Hartz |
Housing on campus is pretty nice. We have different “groups” of dorms and each kinda has their own vibe so you can normally find something that fits. There are single rooms, doubles, triples, quads, and suites. What's also nice is there are LLCs (living learning communities) in each group that is kinda like an extra community, where everyone likes/agrees on really similar stuff. For example we have SOA (Stewart, Akin and Olin). Many of our international students live there, but also there's the Holistic Wellness LLC. Everyone who chooses to apply (you have to apply, but from what I understand it’s easy to get into… I was in VAPA my first year) to live in the holistic wellness LLC is looking for substance-free housing — this is for people who maybe aren’t comfortable with parties, or if you are looking to be sober in college it’s a supportive group who isn’t going to have alcohol in the dorm. Our campus this year was also just made smoke free so there also shouldn't be anyone smoking weed anyways. The other ones are: Platt-Howard - Global Village and VAPA (Visual and Performing Arts), HHA (Holmes/Hartz/Appartments) - Entrepreneur, SOA - Holistic Wellness, in Forest - Manzi - Outdoor Pursuits.... There are for sure more and you can check them all out here.
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| LLCs on Campus |
Like I said, I lived in VAPA my first year. That's in Platt-Howard (another dorm group) and it’s the visual and performing arts LLC. I do a lot of art and dance so that was a fun hall to live in. I actually ended up in a dance piece with 4 people in my hall and I think like 2 others were also in Dance X.
2. How big is the campus?
Campus is divided up into a residential side and an academic side, but it's all very close. I live in the furthest building from academics and it takes me about 10 minutes to get down to the academic side when I'm walking slowly. There's no need to drive to anything (unless you really want, but finding parking is nearly impossible during class times). Campus is pretty small, depending on what you're looking for. Once the schedules are set and the semester gets rolling you see the same people almost everyday walking around campus going to classes and stuff. The people who are also in your major are your second family too. Chances are by the time you graduate you will have had at least 8 classes with the same person. It can be a bit restricting sometimes when you just want to meet new people, but it's also a nice feeling to kind of know everyone - like you're not getting lost in 10,000 students and you're not just a number.
3. Public Transportation?
Yep! We have the PIO; it’s our shuttle that takes us to Fred Meyer and then to downtown. There is also a public transit bus that stops on campus, I’ve never personally taken it, but that is another option, and students get a 75% discount on books of bus tickets. Once you’re downtown, it’s really easy to jump on a bus or street car, but I walk everywhere - it’s not that far. There are Zipcars you can rent on campus, and even a bike share system too.
4. Is it hard to make friends and what's the vibe like?
Finding friends for me wasn’t bad because I went on a New Student Trip. Definitely look into it and I have some other posts about it. I can try to find them and link them to you too. It’s through College Outdoors and its a few days before orientation begins. We get you all out in nature and doing some cool activity, I went rafting, and I met one of my good friends there. From there, her, her roommate and I joined pugilism (boxing club) and that became our friend group. I also made friends through our dance show Dance X and work!
Social vibe, is decently good. There for sure is a “basic LC” vibe which I personally don’t feel like I fit into, but everyone is friendly. For myself, I will say that I am sober by choice, and all my friends are awesome and accepting of that, but I think it’s hard to find a ton of people like that, which is true of any college — that being said I’ve never lived in the holistic wellness LLC, and I’d probably find people if I really wanted to. I will also say, just being someone who isn’t white, the school can seem a bit polarizing some of the time, but I was able to find really great friends who understood that. However, for the most part it is pretty good. The best is when it’s warmer/just not raining out lol (which is kinda rare) but then everyone is hanging outside and talking on the lawn of outside of the academic buildings and I really love that.
5. What if I don't know what I want to study?
That's totally fine. Don't stress. I'm a senior and I'm still not 100% sure what I want to study/what I'm doing.
The cool thing about liberal arts colleges is that there is a credit requirement, but the credits span across an array of subjects. You have to take a lab course - so that’ll get you into the science departments. You need an art credits, PE credits, and language credits. It’s not like high school where you need 4 years of something to graduate, most of the time, just one class will fill the requirement which means you have tons of other time and space to take just random classes that are also outside your major that you find interesting. You can experiment with a ton of classes and take courses that sound interesting.
6. How's the weather?
Not gonna lie, it is not my cup of tea. I hate the weather. I can't do rain. I know it's Portland and we get a lot less rain than some places like Seattle, but I didn't realize that the gray is constant from October - April minus maybe one week in February, which is called the February Fakeout. It doesn't pour rain much, it just is a consistent drizzle or regular rain and the sky is just gray. All that being said, on days of sun everyone takes advantage of it and the campus / city comes to life!
That's totally fine. Don't stress. I'm a senior and I'm still not 100% sure what I want to study/what I'm doing.
The cool thing about liberal arts colleges is that there is a credit requirement, but the credits span across an array of subjects. You have to take a lab course - so that’ll get you into the science departments. You need an art credits, PE credits, and language credits. It’s not like high school where you need 4 years of something to graduate, most of the time, just one class will fill the requirement which means you have tons of other time and space to take just random classes that are also outside your major that you find interesting. You can experiment with a ton of classes and take courses that sound interesting.
6. How's the weather?
Not gonna lie, it is not my cup of tea. I hate the weather. I can't do rain. I know it's Portland and we get a lot less rain than some places like Seattle, but I didn't realize that the gray is constant from October - April minus maybe one week in February, which is called the February Fakeout. It doesn't pour rain much, it just is a consistent drizzle or regular rain and the sky is just gray. All that being said, on days of sun everyone takes advantage of it and the campus / city comes to life!
If you have any other questions, or want to say hi just shoot me an email: ksaylor@lclark.edu
Cheers!
Kate